8 ANGLING FOR GAME FISH. 



trout in grilse stage (Scotland). Herling — Sea-trout in grilse 

 stage (North-country and South of Scotland). Whitling, or 

 "Whitings — Sea-trout in grilse stage (North- country). Mort 

 — Grilse stage of sea-trout (Cumberland). Sprod — Smolt 

 stage (sometimes grilse stage also) of sea-trout (Cumberland). 

 Yellow Fins, Orange Fins, Black Tails, Silver-whites, 

 Silver-greys, Burn Tails — Par stage of sea-trout (North- 

 country and Scotland). Smelt Sprods, Herring Sprods — 

 Par stage of sea-trout (Cumberland). Candlemas-grey — 

 Kelt of sea-trout (Lake-country). 



Unless the majority of anglers interest themselves in fish- 

 culture, there will soon be no sport worth having. In a foot- 

 note* is an account of the various processes necessary in 



* When the trout are seen on the shallows, In October and November, they are 

 netted in small-meshed nets. Those from which the ova or milt run easily (ripe 

 fish) are placed in a tub of water, and the unripe remainder returned, or left iu a 

 store, or floating stew, to mature. From the males a milky liquid will flow at almost 

 the slightest handling, while from the females a touch will cause the appearance of a 

 few eggs the size of small peas. To spawn the female, hold her tail in your left hand, 

 head in the right hand ; raise the head, and, holding the vent of the fish over a milk- 

 plate (or soup-plate, or the basin used for baked milky puddings, if only one or 

 two small fish are to be spawned), bend the tail back a little, causing the skin on the 

 belly to tighten, and the eggs will flow out. If the eggs do not flow freely, or any 

 are left (which will be probable), pass the right hand downwards over the belly, 

 using little pressure until past the vitals. Next, quickly take a male fish, hold the 

 abdomen against the eggs, and gently press with thumb and forefinger above and 

 just behind the pectoral fins. Have a towel in front of you during these 

 operations, and lay the fish on it when not handling them ; and if you cannot both 

 hold and spawn the fish yourself, let an assistant hold the tish for you ; and, in any 

 case, wear a woollen or cloth glove on the left hand. 



But to return to the eggs. After the ova are milted, add a tumbler of water, and 

 gently stir the eggs and milt together. The eggs will shortly stick to the plate, and 

 together. Do not remove them until they have separated, which will be in from 

 half to three-quarters of an hour, or a little more. Next put the plate under a jet 

 of water, and let the water overfiow, and carry with it the effete milt. The eggs 

 are now ready to be laid down, and all that is required is a constant flow of un- 

 polluted water, about Sin. in depth. Any dead eggs must be picked out every 

 morning, and there must be nothing in the material of which the troughs are made 

 (if the eggs are placed in troughs) which will poison the water, or bear any fungoid 

 growth likely to be communicated to the fish. The eggs may be placed in a long, 

 wooden trough (if wood is used, it must be charred), out of which the water passes 

 at one end through a very fine screen ; or they may be laid down on gravel in a 

 brook or backwater, of course being carefully guarded from water-birds and 

 other enemies ; or they may be placed in an artificial redd, such as I have de- 

 scribed on page 10. No two eggs should touch one another ; any crowding should 

 be avoided, and if possible, they should be kept in the dark. The current which 

 passes over them should be gentle, or it may wash the eggs away ; but the dower 

 the stream, the shallower must he the water. Trout-eggs can easily be hatched out 

 in a town house with waterworks water— easier, indeed, than in the country, where 

 sometimes the sediment in the water is a constant source of trouble and loss. If 

 the eggs get covered with sediment, the water in the trough must be watered night 

 and morning with a Avatering-can and the stream through the trough increased. 

 The best thing to do with the fry is to place them, at the end of three weeks, 

 in a pond in which there is plenty of food (first clearing it of other fish), when 

 they will feed themselves, and grow rapidly or slowly according to the food- 



